Jewish Immigration to Israel Will Not Be Curtailed, U.J.A. Says

November 5, 1956

NEW YORK (Nov. 4)

Refugee Jewish immigration into Israel “will neither be curtailed nor halted” as a result of Israel’s security involvement in the Sinai Peninsula “but gives every promise of reaching an even higher rate than in the past.” Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal reported today at an emergency meeting here of the UJA’s top-level National Campaign Cabinet.

Rabbi Friedman warned, however, that “despite Israel’s resolute humanitarian decision to keep its immigration gates as wide open as ever, the hard-pressed people of Israel will not be able to spare a single dollar for immigration purposes.” Responding to this warning, the UJA Cabinet voted into force a special plan for the “full mobilization by November 30 of $30,000,000 in cash as an urgent minimum requirement.”

In addition to Rabbi Friedman, the meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last night heard from Moses A. Leavitt, executive vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee. Mr. Leavitt emphasized that “the continuation of mass immigration at this time is putting added financial burdens on the JDC, which is responsible in Israel for the care and rehabilitation of sick, disabled and aged immigrants, Mr. Leavitt and Rabbi Friedman were in Israel at the same time as members of an 85-man UJA Overseas Study Mission.